By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Susan Kiefel QC AC, aged 62, will officially take up her appointment as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia next January. Justice Kiefel is the first female to be appointed to the position. But she is no stranger to ‘firsts’- in 1987, she was the first… Read more »
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim The New South Wales local court has appointed 11 new magistrates – the largest appointment in several years. Attorney General Gabrielle Upton says the addition is an important step forward in achieving gender equality across the legal profession, as six of the new magistrates are women. Closing the gender… Read more »
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Section 80 of the Australian Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by jury for those who are tried on indictment for criminal charges; in other words, who are dealt with in the higher courts such as the District or Supreme Court. However, there is no express right to… Read more »
Federal Court hearings in Sydney have delivered surprising news for the relatives of victims of the MH 370 airplane disappearance. After refusing for more than 12 months to provide corporate records to assist the families of victims seeking compensation over the disappearance of flight MH 370, Malaysia Airlines has suddenly decided to cooperate. This is… Read more »
write By Blake O’Connor and Ugur Nedim An Illawarra man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is currently on trial in Wollongong District Court for sexual acts performed on a dog and for molesting his granddaughter. The child sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred on multiple occasions in the mid-2000s when the girl… Read more »
Law firm Slater & Gordon (S&G) is well known for taking class action lawsuits against other companies. But in just five months after becoming a public company, the firm is reported to have lost 90% of its share value. Now, the firm is on the other end of two separate class action lawsuits, one of… Read more »
Hamdi Alqudsi, the central figure in Australia’s most successful jihadi recruitment network, has been sentenced to a minimum of six years in prison. In July this year, the 42-year-old western Sydney resident was found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court of seven counts of supporting engagement in armed hostilities in Syria. Alqudsi was found to… Read more »
By Mathew Drogemuller and Ugur Nedim In an extraordinary NSW Supreme Court case, a Chinese Businessman is suing North Sydney based escort agency, Royal Court Escorts, for $3.7 million. Wealthy businessman Yu ‘Martin’ Xu has a penchant for sex with famous international A-listers. He allegedly paid millions to Royal Escorts to sleep with actress Megan… Read more »
Today, there are 132 Magistrates and over 100 courthouses across NSW. With a range of jurisdictions including Local Courts, District courts, Supreme courts and the Court of Criminal Appeal, the NSW court system is complex and far more sophisticated than it once was. The Early Magistrates It was 1788 when the first Magistrates in Australia… Read more »
Last Friday, police lost their Supreme Court bid to block an indigenous rights rally to commemorate the death of TJ Hickey (above), an indigenous teenager killed in 2004 during what many believe was a police pursuit. But the rally went ahead last Sunday as scheduled, starting at TJ Hickey Park and ending at Sydney Town… Read more »
